Teaching the Bible at public universities in South Africa : a proposal for multidisciplinary approach

Abstract:

How should the academy teach the Bible? I noted two challenges to this endeavour. Firstly, the
Bible has been used as superstructure to justify and to solidify colonialism and apartheid in
South Africa which resulted in people to mistrust the way the Western missionaries interpreted
the Bible. It also gave birth to the inception of African Independent Churches (AIC) and an
urgent need to reinterpret the Bible from the experiences of Africans. However, the initial
question remains how the academy should teach the Bible. The complexity of this question
is that despite the Bible’s association with a colonial legacy, the ordinary people did not stop
reading the Bible and to make meaning of their lives from it. This study justifies the place of the
Bible in public universities in South Africa and proposes ways the academy should teach the
Bible. This study suggests a two-pronged approach to Biblical Studies at public universities.
Firstly, the academy should critically engage the ideological presupposition underlying
the theories used in the academy. Secondly, the academy must be open to the fact that the
Bible is part of popular culture; hence, the academy should critically reflect how the Bible is
used in public space. Therefore my hypothesis is that the academy should further focus on
critiquing ideological inclinations that underline established truths in addition to focusing on
the historical meaning of the Bible and establishing contextual similarities. Teaching the Bible
should focus on analysing cultural, political and economic ideological truths that find support
from the Bible. I propose that this line of thought is possible through cultural studies and/or
interdisciplinary methods.

Description:

Dr Zorodzai Dube is a
post-doctoral fellow of
the vice-chancellor of
the University of Pretoria
and is participating as a
research fellow of Prof.
Dr Gert J. Steyn, head of
the Department of New
Testament Studies of the
Faculty of Theology at
the University of Pretoria,
Pretoria, South Africa.